Once again, we visited beautiful Road America for the 2003 version of Championship Auto Racing Teams.  We saw a lot of new players this year in the field, and when allowed to race - they put on quite a show.  Wingazette Magazine dispatched the usual reporters, Phil Randall and Hal Turner, to bring you this report.

Our great trip began with a visit to Portillo's for a Chicago Dog and an Italian Beef sandwich.  Thanks again to Frank Cosentino for the directions!  We also stopped in Milwaukee for some Kopp's custard.  Later in the day, we had our grilled Popeyes Chicken!  The weekend menu included omelets and hashbrowns, bratwurst and roasted corn dipped in real butter, and our famous Wingazette® Chili!

Click on each photo for an enlargement...

On Saturday, we attended the CART Fan Forum with Emerson Fittipaldi, Mario Andretti and some guy named Paul Newman.  Yes, those are real cheese heads in the pictures.  Emmo is funny as all get out.  Mario was instrumental in getting this race back on the schedule, as CART had removed it earlier in the year.  Paul is getting very hard of hearing, but is still pretty cool.

We enjoyed DVD movies, Spiderman and Space Cowboys on Saturday night, after polishing off the chili.  A brief shower came into play, and we took cover from lightening in the car for a few minutes, but the storm passed without event.

We probably saw our last CART race, and we definitely saw how badly an organization could mis-manage an event.  In our 30 years of road racing, we have never seen a race delayed or cancelled due to rain.  One of the primary reasons we go to road courses is that they run the race, rain or shine.  They might go a little slower in the rain, but they ALWAYS run!  This event was the exception to the rule, as we waited for 3 1/2 hours for the start of the race.  Most of the fans who came to the race had to leave before the start.  Way to go CART - you're already dying a slow death and so you give yourself a shotgun blast to the head.  I don't know how you're going to stop the bleeding now...

When the cars were allowed to get underway, it was a wonderful event.  Paul Tracy crashed out on the first lap, and Bruno Junqueria took the overall lead in championship points with a victory.  If this event runs next year, we may just take a year off and attend elsewhere.

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